With this weeks release of the SQL Server Driver for PHP 2.0 CTP 1 (which includes a PDO driver for SQL Server), I need to get up to speed quickly. And, the truth is, I'm fairly inexperienced with PDO, so a cheat sheet is helping me learn the API. Besides, there are some constants that are database specific...I don't stand a chance of keeping those at the ready without a cheat sheet.

This cheat sheet is for this first release of the PDO driver, so it'll probably change as time goes on, but it's a good starting place. You can find out more details about the methods and constants mentioned on the PDO page of the PHP.net site.

Following on from the last part, this one is more of an intermission-a round up of regex syntax seen so far and a couple of links following feedback.

He looks at two different topics:

• A "must reads" section of resources for getting the most out of regular expressions
• A comprehensive "cheat sheet" with tips on expression delimiters, literals, pattern modifiers, character classes, quantifiers, assertions, sub-patterns, and working with the blackslash.

The Regular Expressions cheat sheet is designed to be printed on an A4 sheet of paper and live by a designer or developer's desk, to make life a bit easier. A description of what is on the cheat sheet follows, or if you are impatient, you can go straight to the full size Regular Expressions cheat sheet.

This time, they've posted it in a few different formats, including a torrent file to make for faster/easier download. They still have the usual methods (PDF and PNG) but you'll need to visit the page for those links - it's been requested not to directly link to them.

Want to have a style switcher that lets your site's visitors choose a different style sheet? Want it to work even if there is no JavaScript support? The trick is to use a server-side language like PHP, which is what I use for my style switcher.

Using PHP to let the user switch to a different CSS file is nothing new. But it is one of the things that I am often asked about, so I thought it would be good to have a write-up to refer people to in the future.

The code for the switcher is only about five lines long, implementation and all, but it's a nice, clean way to do it. It would break if the viewer didn't have cookies allowed on their system, though.

You can grab the cheat sheet here in a PDF format.

And PHP Markdown Extra adds a few niceties, like Markdown inside HTML block tags, simple tables, and definition lists. It just drops straight into WordPress and away you go.

For more information on Markdow (or it's use in PHP), you can check out the Markdown manual first and the PHP one to follow up...]]> Fri, 13 Jan 2006 07:30:50 -0600 http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/4632 http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/4632 John Cox has a pointer today in this new entry on his blog to a handy cheat sheet for converting Perl to PHP.

Robert Kline has a handy little cheat sheet to translate Perl to PHP or vice versa. It's been quite some time since I had written any Perl, besides a quick parser or two. This certainly does the trick for me in getting my thinking correct for the Perl syntax. I would assume Perl hackers would say the same thing when needing to use PHP.

The sheet goes through things like arrays, array split/joins, string comparisons, HTML elements, and MySQL database access. Obviously, it works the other way around too, allowing PHP programmers to get some of the basics of Perl...]]> Mon, 09 Jan 2006 06:58:29 -0600 http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/4526 http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/4526 AjaxDeveloper.org today, there's a new post that references an "Unobtrusive Degradable Ajax Style Sheet Switcher" powered on the backend by PHP - UDASSS.

First of all, the idea is very simple. I wanted something just like what Paul Sowden put together in Alternative Style: Working With Alternate Style Sheets from Alistapart Magazine EXCEPT a few minor (not-so-minor actually) differences which I've listed briefly below:

• Allow users to switch styles without JavaScript enabled (degradable)
• Preventing the F.O.U.C. before the window 'load' when getting preferred styles
• Keep the JavaScript entirely off our markup (no onclick's or onload's)
• Make it very very easy to implement (ok, Paul did that too)

The rest of the post is a tutorial on how to use it (simply), and a direct link to download it.]]> Mon, 19 Dec 2005 07:27:01 -0600